You are going to spend a few minutes reading my experience of working in a wonderful place called NHS, a place which UK residents can take a real pride in. A hope for hundreds of patients for cure and another thousands of us for becoming excellent physicians. This is my take on NHS experience of an International Medical Graduate – an account of my 700 days so far in sunshine, rain and blizzards.

January 2017, I still remember the night, I reached Heathrow with my husband – a sad, dark, gloomy night with hovering uncertainty and anticipation. Drizzles in a cold winter to make it worse. Never thought this country has much sunshine to offer in future ( in all metaphors 🙂 )

After we collected our certificates from London, we reached Nottingham to stay at my best friend’s place, thats the best 1 month of our UK life. It is always difficult to arrange an accomodation straight after coming to UK. The hospital did not have accomodation either. Points to be noted – always make sure you have a temporary accomodation in the beginning before the job starts. Liaising with HR for relocation plans and packages is the best idea. Once job started, bank account sorted, only then you are able to get a house/ flat to rent. We finally could move in to our place after 1 month ~ our beautiful little canalside 1 bed room house.

This sad bit must be included in our story. When we 1st came in – we (me and my husband) wanted to take all our savings from home with us for a smooth start. The cumulative was supposed to be roughly £5000. Sadly, just few hours before the flight, we realized, the money exchange person tricked us and only gave £3600. What a shame they took our hard earned money 😦 Complete devastation and shock with the core breaking sadness of leaving parents and coming to an alien country – you certainly feel this is not the greatest start.

Fun continues in the 1st month – I lost my newly bought Samsung S7 in Uber and apparently in this safe country, 2 young thugs tried to rob us in attenborough park ! What a drama😕 thankfully we were safe and unharmed 🤐

However, I dont want to convey a wrong impression – UK is overall a safe country with law and justice, never faced anything while travelling all alone to work at night , so you can rest assured 🙂

When I realized that I cant start the way I wished I would, the plan B was to make sure we survive gracefully! At least to the point, we start getting our salaries. I dont feel shy of saying it, I bought things from poundland or any other cheap stores to set up our 1st household. We decided to cook at home, not to dine out in our initial months, to cover the loss and balance the finance. I might be able to buy the priciest kitchen gadgets and utensils now, but those tiny potato peelers or £1 cutting board will always have a special place in my cupboard.

End of today’s episode – Life moves on no matter what, but that experience of my initial penny saving days had been a precious lesson for our future days. I learnt to love my existence no matter what life throws at me. I have a loving husband, wonderful parents and family and a beautiful bunch of friends who smile when I progress, lend shoulders when I am low. We dont need much, do we?

Next episode – My Interview and 1st job in NHS.

My intention of writing this up is to share my true experiences, it is not always rosy but everything always fell into places at the right time and thats what I want to share.

Good luck guys. Hope you enjoy this series.

Dr. Mahjabin Islam Aurin

( ST4 Neurology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, South Yorkshire Deanery)